(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a storage disk module which includes a storage disk drive unit, a power source, a circuit unit, all of which are accommodated in a frame. Further, the present invention is concerned with a storage disk device having such storage disk modules.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Storage disk devices, such as magnetic disk devices and optical disk devices are widely used in computer systems, as external storage devices. Recently, computer systems have been equipped with storage disk devices having a large storage capacity. A conventional storage disk device has a plurality of storage disk modules accommodated in a frame of the storage disk device.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional storage disk module 6, which is composed of a disk drive unit 3, a power source 4, a circuit unit 5, all of which are accommodated in a frame 1. The disk drive unit 3 positions heads with respect to storage disks by using an access mechanism. The circuit unit 5 controls the the operation of the disk drive unit 3.
The storage disk module 6 is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-88529 filed Apr. 7, 1989. The structural elements of the storage disk module 6 are arranged as follows. The disk drive unit 3 is fixed to a rear portion of frame 1. The power source 4 and the circuit unit 5 are provided in a front portion of the frame 1. Cables electrically connect the disk drive unit 3, the power source 4 and the circuit unit 5 to each other.
Upper and lower portions of the module 6 are open. With this structure, it becomes possible to effectively cool the entire module 6 by a cooling flow, as indicated by arrows, and to perform a maintenance operation on the power source 4 and the circuit unit 5 from the front side of the module 6.
However, the conventional storage disk module 6 shown in FIG. 1 has a disadvantage in that laying the above-mentioned connection cables requires a large area which prevents an increase in the mounting density. A further disadvantage is that the storage disk module 6 must be forwardly drawn and the connection cables must be detached from the structural elements in order to replace the disk drive unit 3 with a new one.